Disclaimer: Alas, I still do not own FFVIII.

Chapter Four: Force Your Way

The streets of Timber were once again bustling, still slowly recovering from Garden's failed attack on the president of Galbadia. Rumors whispered through the town, passing through shops and homes in scared anticipation. None were withheld from Raijin, who was still diligently searching for any information on Seifer. So far, the fate of his dear friend was looking grim.

He was leaning against the balcony of his hotel room, staring up at the stars as if they could enlighten him. He sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. Seifer…you can't be dead, can you? Fujin would kill you if you did something like that, ya know…For the first time in a long time, Raijin didn't know what to do. Timber was full of dead ends; everyone said that Seifer had been executed, but no one knew where the body was. Raijin had even asked the town's mortician if he had come across it, but he hadn't. It gave Raijin a small sliver of hope.

The current gossip now was that there was a parade to be held for that bitch sorceress and her president-dog in Deling. Raijin had went in the opposite direction…there was no way he could get to Deling in time. Well, he could, but there would be no time to plan anything. It wasn't as if he could just run up and kill the president. He couldn't even watch the stupid parade, the TV station was still shut down.

But if he couldn't do anything, where was he supposed to go? Balamb came to mind first, and he realized that Fujin would have been sent back there by now. She'd been devastated, she would need him to grieve with. Then again, she had been pretty steadfast in her belief that Seifer was still alive, and if she didn't see his corpse with her own eye, she wouldn't ever count him dead. Raijin hung his head, glaring down three stories. He couldn't, no, wouldn't return to Balamb until he found Seifer, dead or alive.

Raijin slowly craned his neck again and frowned at the stars, silently pleading for something to go right.

On the other side of the continent, Fujin slipped through the crowds gathered in Deling, her breath coming from her mouth in small quick puffs of mist. Her steely eye was restless, keeping watch for danger in any form, whether it was a suspicious soldier or unforgiving SeeD. She slinked away from the crowds and all of their busy excitement, towards the back of Deling's auditorium.

It was eerily quiet and bright inside, and paranoia built in Fujin's core. The hallways were empty. She slowly took a step, straining to hear anyone she might not have seen at first. The only sound that met her ears was the low hum of the air conditioner. She allowed herself a sigh of relief and continued to stalk down the hallway, keeping herself flat against the wall.

"…yes, Mr. President." Fujin tensed at the sound of approaching voices.

"And no creamer!" Deling snapped. He shook his head as the assistant scurried ahead of him. How hard was it to get a decent cup of coffee? Yes, a good cup of coffee was in order, maybe a cigar, too, if he had to deal with the Ambassador…

"Hey, what are you doin- AH!" The hairs on the back of Deling's neck stood on end at the echoes of his assistant's scream. He ran in the other direction, jerking himself back before a metallic disc could slice its way through his face. He went cross-eyed staring at the sharp weapon stuck in the wall mere centimeters from his nose.

The source of the weapon was a silver-haired woman, huffing and staring at him with a hatred not at all unfamiliar to him. Not wasting any more time staring at her, he pulled what appeared to be a detonator out of his pocket and pressed the button. Alarms screeched through the night, red lights flashing off and on in the hallway. She stood her ground, shaking with the sheer intensity of her anger and hatred.

"RAGE!" she snarled, and, wasting no more time, ran at him. He managed to put a small amount of distance between them as she yanked her weapon from the wall, and threw it one more time. It sliced him in the arm before gliding back to her. She snatched it up and ran at him as the hallways rumbled with heavy footsteps.

A swarm of soldiers came running in from all sides, and Deling smirked as they ran past him, their weapons raised and ready for Fujin. Feeling more terrified than she ever had, Fujin roared and charged, silently vowing to die only after Deling.

She pushed through countless soldiers, knowing she was getting stabbed but not registering any of the pain. She watched with morbid fascination as body after body hit the floor, as blood spilled from all sides, and as, slowly, she was managing to force a crimson path to Deling.

Her situation seemed so much less hopeless. Her heartbeat excelled as fast as it could possibly go, adrenaline screaming in her head as she twisted and sliced, blocked and thrust her weapon into soldier after soldier. She was quick and skilled, but she was also heavily outnumbered and attacked from all sides, and soon she was overwhelmed. She struggled, thrashing against a guard that restrained her. Something pressed against her forehead, and the cool metal feel of it told her it was a gun. Deling looked down at her, clutching the freely bleeding wound she'd bestowed on him. Fujin sneered up at him, daring him to give the order. While she'd been fighting, a nervous sweat had broken out on his forehead, and his skin gleamed in the harsh lighting. Though the man was obviously still shaken the smirk had resurfaced as he looked to Fujin's captors.

I failed... Fujin gently closed her eye. She hoped she could spend her afterlife in the same way she'd spent her most recent years; going wherever Seifer was going.

"And what have we here?" A cold voice drawled. A chill went up Fujin's spine, and she couldn't help but peek up at the new voice. A woman dressed in a tight purple floor-length dress stared down at her with a strange mixture of curiosity and condescension. It was The Sorceress, Fujin realized.

"Well, um, Ambassador," Deling immediately lost any composure he thought he had. "I think it's another SeeD."

"SeeD…" she whispered in a deadly soft tone. Her yellow eyes narrowed. "Contain her," she ordered, and Fujin was forced to straighten up as the guards hauled her away.

"But…wouldn't you rather have her executed?" the President asked uncertainly. Fujin didn't hear the sorceress' response.

Why wouldn't she? Fujin wondered. One of the guards turned her and slapped a pair of handcuffs on her before marching her away. They opened a door at the end of the hall and the guards shoved her into it, allowing her to stumble into a messy pile of cleaning supplies. The door shut behind them, and Fujin was left in complete darkness.

They had locked her in a closet. It was cramped and smelled heavily of Clorox. She glanced down at the strip of light that flooded in through the bottom of the door, seeing only one shadow filter through. After all of that damage, only one soldier was guarding her? She winced, the full extent of her injuries finally registering on her tired body. A few good cuts and bruises, but only the one in her side felt like something she should concern herself with.

She'd been stupid. Stupid, and reckless, and crazy…How had she thought this would save Seifer? If anything, her actions had shamed his memory. She hadn't been killed yet, but she was sure she was only being kept alive for information on SeeD. When they found out that she wasn't a SeeD, it would all be over for her.

She sighed and gingerly slid down the wall. She supposed that her only regret was that she didn't get to say goodbye to Raijin. She glared and bit her lip. He was the one who'd abandoned her, it would be his burden to bear. No, he was posse…yes, he'd split them up even further…no, he might be the only one left, after tonight…

Fujin didn't want to sit alone with her confusion and misery, but she didn't have Raijin to kick or Seifer to obey. Her mind tumbled from hating Raijin to missing Seifer to despising herself to wanting Raijin to missing Seifer all over again.

She let her head thud against the wall.

At that same moment, Squall fell from the top of Deling Tower, a bloody spike of ice sticking out of his shoulder.

AAA

"Move it, girly." Fujin squinted against the bright light that flooded her vision. She blinked a few times in disorientation, trying to figure out where she was.

A Galbadian soldier held his gun tensely as he leered down at her. She slowly got up, telling herself the pain in her side was just a stitch as she pushed her back against the wall. Finally growing impatient with her sluggishness, the soldier lowered his gun and grabbed her arm, jerking her forward. She staggered down the hall and was forced out of the building.

The city was in a panic, swarms of people crowding to get out of the central square. Fujin watched as the guards tried to restore order, tried to catch bits and pieces of the hushed voices and frantic sobs.

She was just beginning to wonder if the SeeDs' mission had been a success when a black van came into her line of vision. The guard shoved her in and her knees banged against the cold metal.

"And don't even think about trying anything funny, this van's magic proofed!" he barked.

"We heard you the first time!" someone snapped just as the doors slammed close. Fujin took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. After a few minutes she was able to lean against the wall, and, breathing heavily, looked around. Three shadows were cramped next to her.

"…Fujin?" Fujin squinted and recognized the silhouette of Selphie's unique hairstyle in the darkness.

"Affirmative." she replied. She was too tired to yell, too tired to be stubborn.

"But how did you get caught?" Zell asked. The van lurched forward, and for a few seconds the only noise that could be heard was the roar of the engine.

"I think a better question is, what were you doing before you got caught?" Quistis asked, sounding like the teacher she used to be.

Fujin closed her eye and leaned stretched her leg as far as it could go without hitting Zell, hoping they'd take the hint and leave her alone. Zell grumbled and Quistis didn't pursue it.

"What's that on the floor?" Selphie asked, squirming next to Fujin. "It's all slimy…Fujin, are you bleeding!" she gasped. Fujin sighed. She'd been trying not to think of all of the varying levels of pain that plagued her body. She only nodded and hoped that Selphie would shut up.

Quistis began shifting, Fujin could see her crouching in her corner. Her shadow thumped and skidded at times, but after a few minutes of careful observation, Fujin could see what Quistis was doing; the older girl was trying to bring her handcuffed hands in front of her by stepping through her looped arms.

After a long struggle, the blonde managed to get her hands in front of her, and she fidgeted. Fujin guessed that she was reaching for something at her side.

"And people wonder why I wear pants under a skirt," Quistis mused, and there was almost laughter in her tired voice. "It's a great place to stash extra items, keep that in mind, Selphie." Quistis struggled for a few seconds to uncork a bottle, and once she had it open, she scooted her way over to Fujin, holding (with both hands) a potion.

"Drink it," she commanded, pressing it to Fujin's lips. Fujin nodded and together they managed to get the potion down her throat without spilling much. Fujin sighed softly as her more serious wounds healed up. Quistis made her way back to her spot and tucked the evidence back into her pocket.

"Now to get my hands back behind my back…" she mumbled as she began to shift around again.

For a few minutes, Fujin struggled with herself. She didn't know why, but a part of her longed to tell Quistis and her teammates what she'd been doing before she'd gotten caught. She almost felt like she owed it to them, and the feeling irritated her. In the end she decided to bite her lip; Quistis had only given her the potion in hopes that Fujin would give her some information in return. Fujin wasn't going to fall for it.

"…Damn it." Zell hissed, his leg bumping Fujin's as he fidgeted.

"What's the matter, Zell?" Selphie asked, somehow still managing to sound upbeat.

"This…this isn't the end, is it?" he asked, his voice shaking with nerves. "I didn't want it to end like this, not so soon…"

"Zell," Selphie started, unsure.

"Calm down," Quistis said with gentle authority. "If they were going to kill us, they would have done it back there."

"Yeah," Selphie nodded in agreement. "I'm sure the Headmaster will sort it out, and we'll all be busted out by tomorrow."

"Yeah…yeah, you guys are right." he laughed uneasily. "Sorry 'bout that." Fujin remained silent. They all knew nothing good was waiting for them, that most likely they'd be tortured for information, rot in prison, or maybe face execution for their actions. Fujin herself had already spent a good deal of the night dwelling on those facts, and she didn't want to think of them anymore.

"Did any of you see what happened to Squall?" Quistis asked. It sounded like she had tried to make her voice sound steady, like she had been mentally preparing herself before daring to ask.

"No…he was up with that Irvine guy." Zell muttered.

"Think they're okay?" Selphie whispered.

"I don't know." Quistis quietly replied. The sound of the van's engine seemed unbearably loud.

Fujin didn't know if she fell asleep or simply stopped paying attention to her surroundings, but much later the van's doors were flung open, and dawn's first light flooded the back of the van, revealing four tired, injured teens. A small group of guards stood against the orange sky.

"Let's move!" the guard in front ordered, and they were quickly ushered out.

Fujin stared in silent anxiety at the cold building that rose from the desert sand.

End Chapter

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates! I'm working on the next chapter right now, hopefully it'll be updated soon.